Sudan
High Adventure on the
Red Sea’s Nubian Flats
Story & Photos by Brian Gies Stalking triggerfish where the desert meets the sea. Photo: Brian Gies
I
f you don’t have a lot of friends who have regaled you with stories about their flats fishing trips to Sudan, don’t worry, you are not alone. To date, Sudan and the Nubian flats have not exactly been a hot spot for tourists or fly fishers. But rest assured, there are stories to be told. Bordered to the north by Egypt and to the south by Eritrea and now independent, but landlocked, South Sudan, Sudan’s history of civil unrest has largely left the country off traveling anglers’ radar. This began to change roughly ten years ago when divers, eager to explore the beauty of some of the Red Sea’s greatest ecosystems, began successfully visiting the crystal-clear waters and remarkable coral complexes of Sudan. Shortly thereafter, South African fly fishers, headed by the team at Tourette Fishing, followed and today Sudan’s Nubian flats have become a blossoming hot spot for flats anglers that appreciate adventure, challenge, value and unpressured wade fishing for a wide variety of desirable flats species. In March of 2018, I took a group of adventuresome travelers to check it out firsthand. It was an incredible mothership-based adventure spent exploring the interface of two surreal worlds: the harsh, sunbaked, seemingly lifeless desert of the mainland and the incredibly rich turquoise waters of the Red Sea. For anglers that love the playful and highly interactive sport of
chasing yellow margin and titan triggerfish on the fly, Sudan might be the greatest fishery on the planet. We allocated roughly 1 /3 of our time to this fishery and spent a good deal more time targeting and teasing giant trevally, as well as sight fishing for bluefin trevally, bohar snapper, grouper, bumphead parrotfish and barracuda. Ultimately a trip to Sudan is for those that want to explore frontier fisheries and appreciate a real physical challenge in an environment that draws its beauty from extremes beyond what the ordinary angler will ever experience.
Fishing Program Sudan showcases two distinct and very different fisheries. The first revolves around endless miles of hard, easy to wade, white sand and turtle grass flats. These flats, which range from 100 feet to several hundred yards wide, ring the shoreline as far as the eye can see and represent the finest triggerfish habitat in the world. The other significant fishery encompasses the outer edges of the flats, countless coral reefs and pinnacles. These areas are prime habitat for GT’s as well as numerous reef species. These areas are incredibly rugged and are only appropriate for fit, agile anglers. Due to the remote nature of the region, all fishing is accessed by a mothership and two pangas. The pangas are employed to
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